Since the Pens are not allowed to practice until Feb. 22nd, can't we simply send some of our former WBS players back down to WBS for a few games until the season starts again?
It can't possibly hurt them to keep playing and continue to practice. The WBS are going to be going through a tough stretch of playing 8 games in the next 15 days. The WBS have been struggling lately, can't be a bad idea to help them out also, since they have been sending all of their guys up to us.

8 games of play is a lot. In my opinion it could help them stay fresh and in rythem until the season continues again in 2 weeks. Also, if they returned to WBS for those games, they would most likely win most of the games, thus carry the winning momentum to the Pens !!!

Nevermind the waiver situation, nobody can play in the AHL during the Olympics if they've spent a certain percentage of the year (I think 75%) in the NHL. That pretty much rules everybody out except maybe Whitney, who probably needs the rest anyways. Also, Christensen and Talbot, obviously.

And that is also the reason why Talbot went down when he did, I think.

I still don't get why the Pens can't practice as a team. Yes, some teams have a few Olympians on them. But they will be playing over in Italy. What does that have to do with the players left over here? The Olympians will be getting practice and icetime.
I can see a couple days off with the heavy schedule. But almost 2 weeks? We just got Gonchar, Recchi and LeClair playing decent hockey. :x

I agree, it does not make sense to me either because they are playing in Italy.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that some teams have lots of players leave for the Olympics, and therefore it would create a advantage to some of the teams that do not have many players play in the Olympics like the Pens. Mabye they think that it would not be fair for them to get the extra time to practice. I believe that they do that for fairness issues.